What did the Czechs show against the Swiss? Soucek without confidence, fearless Vlkanova and surprisingly good Zima

Comment:: The Czech national football team lost 1: 2 in Switzerland on Tuesday and said goodbye to the elite group of the Nations League. What did the match, in which the Czechs scored three times, show for the next matches?

Vlkanova with vigour

The deployment of wingers Adam Vlkanova with Vaclav Cerny at the expense of Adam Hložek with Jaroslav Zeleny was positively evaluated on social media, more commentators believed in the Twente players, but in the final the Pilsen technician was significantly better.

Vlkanova hit the crossbar right from the start, but that was far from the only bright moment. He took responsibility, playing with the ball on the edge of the box in a way that reminded Nicolae Stancio in his movement. He certainly showed great potential for the next few encounters.

The unctuous, unsalty Soucek

As likeable as Tomas Soucek is, he is really struggling at the moment. Criticism is coming at him from Hammers fans, and after two national team games, he’s taking it on the domestic scene as well. His crisis is obvious from his expression, he hasn’t looked this sad during a game for a long time.

Let’s leave aside the insane penalty kick for now. Soucek is failing with the ball, often bouncing it completely senselessly, his lower self-confidence is evident and his movement deficiencies are showing with his deteriorating form.

In midfield he was missing one of the running trio Michal Sadilek, Tomáš Holeš, Petr Ševčík, as Lukáš Kalvach and Alex Kral are also not fast runners. And maybe that was the problem.

Interesting defense in the second half

Ondrej Kudel didn’t have a good game, maybe a bit surprisingly, other stoppers shone. Václav Jemelka kept his place in the lineup after a successful June reunion, Zima has been playing regularly since last fall.

It is all the more striking that Zima is not playing in Italy. His injury from the start of the year and FC Torino’s good start to the season may have played a role, perhaps also the Torino three-stopper formation, in which Zima is not so good. In any case, with Jemelka in the back four they looked very good.

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